Royal Jon Skousen (; born August 5, 1945) is an American linguist and retired professor of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and English at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(BYU), where he is editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. He is "the leading expert on the textual history of the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''. The book is one of ...

" and the founder of the analogical modeling approach to language modeling.

Early life

Skousen was born in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, to Leroy Bentley Skousen and Helen Louise Skousen, a

Latter-day Saint The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded b ...

family and was one of eleven children. He is a nephew to W. Cleon Skousen. He graduated from Sunset High School in

Beaverton, Oregon Beaverton is a city in the Tualatin Valley, located in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oregon, with a small portion bordering Portland. The city is among the main cities that make up the Portland metropolitan area. Its population was ...

. Skousen's father unexpectedly died from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

in 1964 despite never having smoked. Skousen served as an LDS missionary in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

from 1965 to 1967.

Studies

Skousen received his B.A. degree from BYU, with a major in English and a minor in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

. Skousen went on to study

at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, earning his Ph.D. degree there in 1972.

Career

Skousen was an assistant professor of linguistics at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

from the earning of his PhD until 1979, when he joined the faculty o
BYU
He was also a visiting professor at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

in 1981, a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

lecturer at the

University of Tampere The University of Tampere (UTA) (, ) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019. The university offered undergraduate, postgraduate an ...

in Finland in 1982, and a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in

Nijmegen Nijmegen ( , ; Nijmeegs: ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, in 2001. In 1999, BYU presented him the Karl G. Maeser Excellence in Research and Creative Arts Awards. Since 1999, Skousen has served as the president of the Utah Association of Scholars, an affiliate of the

National Association of Scholars The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is an American 501(c)(3) non-profit politically conservative education advocacy organization. It advocates against multiculturalism, diversity policies, and against courses focused on race and gender i ...

. He has also been associate editor of the ''Journal of Quantitative Linguistics'' since 2003.

Personal life

Having served his mission in Finland, Skousen is fluent in Finnish. Skousen married Sirkku Unelma Härkönen in 1968. They have seven children and live in

Orem, Utah Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the northern part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Utah, Provo, Lindon, Utah, Lindon, and Vineyard, Utah, Vineyard and is approximately south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the pri ...

Works

Books

* * * * * 2 vols. * * 6 vols. *

Articles and papers

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

*
Skousen speaking on "The Critical Text Project of the Book of Mormon" (video and audio)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skousen, Royal 1945 births 20th-century Mormon missionaries American Mormon missionaries in Finland American academics of English literature Brigham Young University alumni Brigham Young University faculty Latter Day Saints from Ohio Latter Day Saints from Oregon Latter Day Saints from Utah Living people Phonologists from the United States People from Beaverton, Oregon Academics from Cleveland People from Orem, Utah Psycholinguists University of California, San Diego faculty University of Illinois alumni People from Spanish Fork, Utah National Association of Scholars Sunset High School (Beaverton, Oregon) alumni Latter Day Saints from Texas Book of Mormon scholars American missionary linguists